Monday, 27 January 2014

In the last several years, smart TV market share in the UK can be argued to be disproportionately small relative to the amount of communications promoting such products. While smart TV usage has increased by 2% annually to 7% of all TV owning households in the UK during 2013 (Ofcom), the amount of challenges to its success are growing quickly.

The growing problem facing smart TVs can be illustrated by how owners mainly use them, viewing content online, from catch up TV apps (57%) to streaming on apps like Netflix (38%). Consumers using smart TV technology to expand the existing core functionality of TV is expected, but it doesn't provide smart TVs a USP against connected TV
devices like game consoles (an estimated 4m Xbox & 3m Playstation users in the UK), set top boxes and growing plugins such as Google's Chromecast.

Monday, 23 September 2013

Until the announcement of the iPhone 5s' finger print scanner or 'Touch ID', you were more likely think of Biometric technologies at an airport or with your passport than on your phone. That's because historically, the technology has only really consistently made mainstream news when added or adopted to immigration procedures and passports, normally holding facial data and/or fingerprints. Despite this, biometric identification has evolved and made its way to a variety of locations in the last decade, from to Disneyland's fingerprinting on entry to identifying high value customers in retail and even processing payment with your face alone.
However, the opportunities such technology can provide are
counterbalanced by concerns about privacy and data security, as the
possibilities for widespread consumer biometric uses are consistently
dogged by concerns about who stores your data.

Wednesday, 28 August 2013

Telepresence robots have long been the domain of the back of
the business section news article, covering various advancements made by Cisco
and others in creating a viable
robotic solution to working from home but being in the office. More often than
not however, the reality of such solutions has been derided over adopted, as in
sitcoms such as the ‘Big Bang Theory’. While guiding a robot around the office
and video conferencing on the fly may not be common place, or even free from
ridicule, the technology has recently been implemented in two interesting
advertising campaigns by San Pellegrino and Coca-Cola Israel.

San
Pellegrino’s ‘3 Minutes in Italy’ campaign utilized telepresence robots to
allow Facebook users to control a sandwich boarded and branded robot as they
explore the village of Taormina in Sicily. Users were able to interact with
locals through video conference, with audio being automatically translated, as
they were given a guided tour of the city. The campaign also offered live video
from a drone of the city from the sky, but clearly the main attraction here was
the ability to interact with the locals. The campaign, while arguably limiting
its scale, used telepresence to bring to life the Italian brand values conveyed
by San Pellegrino in a novel and engaging way.

Coca-Cola Israel
recently deployed similar technology to allow Israeli teenagers to attend
their ‘Summer of Love’ festival when not able to go in person. The robots were
similar in set-up to San Pellegrino’s campaign, but allowed users to travel
around the music festival, interact with festival-goers and watch bands. The
campaign generated PR coverage for both the festival and the brand in a way
that extended the technology’s use.

For both campaigns, the issue of scalability quickly
relegates the use of telepresence to a gimmick on first look, despite the
possibility for earned media and PR amplification. Though scalability isn’t
likely to be overcome in any use of telepresence advertising, campaigns such as
San Pellegrino highlight the opportunities for long-term use over more tactical
activations such as Coca-Cola. Using robots to bring consumers to the home of
San Pellegrino, if only for a limited campaign this time, highlights how
brand values can be brought to life through this novel experience for web
users in longer ways. Going forward, similar technology could be used to bring other destinations to life consistently, from luxury car factories for perspective buyers
online or in dealership, to possible hotel guests examining a resort, with
scale coming from long term consistent usage of the tech. Any brand with a location to bring to life, and the time to organize a feasible amount of engagement, could consider a possible telepresence solution. So while cowboy hat wearing robots might not be ferrying Jack Daniel's enthusiasts around Lynchburg anytime soon, it isn't beyond the realm of possibility.

Monday, 19 August 2013

Growing up, I saw the movie 'Dick Tracy' and as most kids who saw his wrist watch phone, I really wanted one of my own. This was a case of expectation and reality not quite meeting up, as the watch I ended up getting from the 90's Toys-R-Us was less the size of a time piece and more a full sized 'walkie-talkie' with a velcro bracelet attached to it. Incidentally, this was one of the last watches I owned, as mobile phones came in a few years later and fixed my need for a time piece, something I was quite happy to adopt. These two stories are quite coincidental currently, as discussion around major manufacturers getting into the 'smart watch' subsector of wearable technology stands ready to attempt to usher an updated type of 'Dick Tracy' watch to market and its all because of smart phones.

Tuesday, 13 August 2013

The news of the publishing of Elon Musk's proposal for his Hyperloop transport proposal has spurred a bit of discussion on its feasibility, impact on mass transport and how it would fit within the wider market. While many different pieces have begun to discuss this in depth, reading Musk's 54 page published 'alpha' plan PDF, what has struck me is the way in which he has gone about releasing the idea and his approach to it being completed.Musk's last page show's his open approach to developing this idea, as he's putting the entire design and concept out for someone to implement with him. In interviews he's stated that Tesla and Space X is taking up his time (a rumored 100 hour work week) and that Hyperloop needs someone else to take up the challenge.

Thursday, 1 August 2013

The launch of Google’s Chromecast
aggressively opens a new avenue for the brand towards a presence in the
consumer’s living room. At $35, the HDMI dongle allows users to cheaply stream
content from Netflix, YouTube, Google Play, the Chrome browser and photos
albums to their TVs utilizing the Chrome Operating system. Unlike SMART TV
interfaces or connected devices which feature remotes and onscreen menus,
Chromecast uses a consumer’s existing devices as a second screen to control
it, meaning content can be streamed and controlled from Android phones and
tablets, iPhones, iPads and Chrome for Mac and Windows. The ability to stream
content to a Chromecast device happens within a second screen app, indicating
Google is relying on developers to add functionality to existing apps over
attempting to create native versions on their device. Google has positioned
Chromecast as a light weight, straightforward and affordable solution to
making any TV ‘smart’.